These Are The Major Players Among Ukraine's Pro-Russian Separatists

KYIV — Keeping a handle on
who's who in the chaotic separatist insurgency gripping Ukraine's
frontier with Russia can get a little confusing. Here is a quick
guide to the main players in Ukraine's increasingly wild
east.

Pavel Gubarev — the "People's Governor"

Sergei Chuzavkov/AP

The 31-year-old Gubarev was "elected" Donetsk's "people's
governor" by his supporters at a pro-Russia rally on Lenin Square
in central Donetsk in early March. They then stormed and occupied
the regional administration building in Donetsk. Although they
were soon evicted, the building changed hands again the following
week. Gubarev made calls for a referendum on the Donbas region's
status. In contrast to the separatist forces from April onward,
the protesters who proclaimed Gubarev "people's governor" were a
ragtag bunch in plainclothes and did not openly carry firearms.

On March 6, Gubarev was
arrested at his home by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) for
separatism. During his two-month detention in Kyiv, an officer
wasfilmed at a court hearingdemanding he remove his St.
George ribbon; Gubarev refused, calling the orange-and-black
ribbon "sacred." Gubarev was released in early May in a swap for
captured SBU agents.

Gubarev's title of people's
governor is not an official office of the self-proclaimed
"Donetsk People's Republic," which was declared by separatists
while he was in jail. On May 23, Gubarevannounced the
formationof
"Novorossia," a political movement aimed at integrating eight
eastern and southern Ukrainian oblasts into a new
state.

Before dabbling in separatist
politics, Gubarev worked as an advertising agent. In one
videomaking the rounds on
YouTube, he is
dressed as Father Frost, part of a business venture in which the
Soviet equivalent of Santa Claus visited children at their homes.
He is also alleged to have been a member of the Russian
ultranationalist groupRussian National
Unityin the
1990s.

Vyacheslav Ponomaryov — the
"People's Mayor" of Slovyansk

On April 12, masked gunmen
seized security services, police, and government buildings in
Slovyansk. Since then, Ponomaryov, 49, has been their public
face. Ponomaryov fashions himself as the "people's mayor" of
Slovyansk, an industrial town in northern Donetsk Oblast that has
become a separatist stronghold and prime target of the Ukrainian
government's "antiterrorist operation."

A veteran of the Soviet Navy,
he was most recently employed as the boss of a soap-manufacturing
factory. Ponomaryov's forces have been accused of a series of
kidnappings in Slovyansk. Among those abducted have been American
journalist Simon Ostrovsky, Ukrainian journalists, and an OSCE
military verification mission invited by the Kyiv authorities.
His name was added to the EU blacklist of Russians and Ukrainians
with entry bans and asset freezes.

The 33-year-old Pushilin, who was born in nearby Makiyivka and is
based in Donetsk, appeared on the scene slightly before
Ponomaryov. But he cuts a more dapper and refined figure,
sporting a shirt and jacket rather than fatigues and a baseball
cap. He became the deputy "people's governor" in early April,
effectively replacing Gubarev after the latter was arrested. When
the "Donetsk People's Republic" was proclaimed on April 7,
Pushilin became one of its leaders. On May 15, he was made
Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the self-styled DNR, making him
it's effective head of state.

There has been speculation of a
rift between separatists in Slovyansk and Donetsk. Pushilin
served in the Ukrainian Army at the turn of the millennium. After
completing his military service, he worked a series of jobs
—including as a casino croupier — and pushing financial products
for MMM, a successor to the infamous Russian Ponzi scheme that
swindled tens of thousands after the collapse of the Soviet
Union. He is on the EU's visa blacklist.

Aleksandr Borodai — The DNR's "Prime Minister"

Ivan Sekretarev/AP

Borodai, 41, was late to the show, but is rapidly emerging as a
key player in the separatist elite.

A Russian citizen, Borodai
lived in Moscow prior to the outbreak of unrest in Ukraine. He
was made "prime minister" after the DNR adopted a draft
constitution on May 15. He joined the ranks of the separatists —
publicly, at least — only a few weeks ago but has since become
one of their more visible figures.

In what may have been a bid to
consolidate his power, he recently called for an end to looting
by separatists. At his behest, the regional administration
building that has served as a headquarters for the Donetsk
People's Republic was raided and cleared out by well-organized
fighters calling themselves the "Vostok Battalion," a Russian
military structure that a Chechen warlord established in the
1990s.

Borodai reportedly defended the
Russian White House in 1993 when hard-liners barricaded
themselves inside after Boris Yeltsin dissolved the Supreme
Soviet. He is also reputed to be close to the Russian nationalist
Aleksandr Prokhanov. In the 1990s, Borodai worked as an editor of
Prokhanov's ultranationalist newspaper "Zavtra." Borodai is
reportedly an old friend of Igor Girkin, the DNR's "defense
minister." He toldThe New York
Time" he had been
in Moldova's pro-Moscow breakaway Transdniester region with
Girkin in the 1990s "to protect the rights of
Russians."

Aleksandr Mozhayev aka
"Babai" — A Bearded Insurgent

Mozhayev, who goes by the moniker "Babai," is a mercurial,
bearded Cossack fighter from southern Russia who was — likely
erroneously — thought to be a GRU military intelligence officer
who had served in the South Ossetia 2008 conflict. Pictures
likening the two were widely circulated on the web, but the
resemblance in fact does not go much further than large beards
and military apparel. Mozhayev told "Time" magazine that he was
on the run from trumped-up charges of threatening to stab someone
in Russia. He was in Crimea prior to the unrest in Ukraine's
east.

Girkin, better known by his pseudonym "Strelkov," is a Russian
citizen and, like Borodai, is from Moscow. He is in charge of
military operations in Slovyansk, where Ponomaryov is the
"people's mayor." On May 16, he was made defense minister of the
self proclaimed DNR. According to Russian media, he is a colonel
and served in conflicts in Transdniester, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and
Chechnya. He also wrote for the ultranationalist newspaper
"Zavtra." There are 15 articles entered under the name "Igor
Strelkov" on "Zavtra's" website.

The SBU has accused him of
being an undercover officer with the GRU, the Russian Defense
Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate, and the brains behind
the operation in the east. He remained in the shadows of the
insurgency until he gave an interview to the Russian daily
"Komsomolskaya pravda." Girkin said his paramilitary unit was
formed in Crimea and comprised mostly Ukrainians. He is likely
one of the most powerful separatist figures in eastern
Ukraine.

Much of his past is unclear.
However, pictures of Girkin dressed as a gladiator and in other
military costumes apparently show thatreenacting historical
battlesis one of
his hobbies. Girkin is also on the EU list of those facing asset
freezes and entry bans.

Valery Bolotov — the leader of the "People's Republic of
Luhansk"

The 44-year-old Bolotov is the
self-styled "people's governor" in Luhansk Oblast. He is the
chairman of the Luhansk Oblast's "Paratrooper Veterans Union."
Born in the town of Stakhanov in the Luhansk region, Bolotov
served in the Soviet Army in the late 1980s and was deployed to
Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region in 1989-90 when fighting
broke out between ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis. Days after
separatists held an unrecognized independence referendum on May
11, Bolotov reportedly survived an apparent assassination
attempt. He is on the European Union's list of figures facing
visa ban and asset freezes.